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National Air Ride Seat Install.......

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Driver’s Side Battery Tray

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McMaster Carr has a wide selection of Low-Temperature/High-Pressure D.O.T. Push-to-Connect Tube Fittings for Air in 1/4" tubing sizes.

Among them is a "Through-Wall Straight Connector, Tube-to-Tube" (aka bulkhead connector) that I used to route my PacBrake air supply into cab under the drivers seat to the dual air bag control that I mounted under the seat frame and then lead the air lines back out and into the air bags on the rear axle.

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McMaster is awesome and I use them a lot for various items, their order to ship time is incredible. The thing about Wilson is that he is his own McMaster-Carr!:-laf
 
Guys, I have not forgotten you. Zero free time this week.

Plus the Can Am is scattered throughout the garage and I need to get it back together tonight so I can trailer it to the coast for the weekend.

I promise to get back onto the seat write up next week......
 
Mike,

When will you finish this project ? I want to replace seats in '96.

Don't give up on me guys, they have been running me ragged over the last two weeks. I try and add to it later on tonight once I finish my little work project...
 
Wow, I can't seem to get to this....I'll try again tonight..

I owe Motorhead some measurements as well that I need to do tonight..

I'll edit this out later as it doesn't need to be in this thread but I would like to kinda' lay out what the last three weeks have amounted to...

May 13th through May 19th....Every two years there is an exhibition held in Bangor called the Northeast Loggers Show. We always have a steak dinner for our customers on the Friday of the show which was the 19th... building has to be gone over, lipstick applied to the pig, etc...my wife does a lot of the work so we took the fifth wheel to work on May 13th and stayed there. While there I did get the seats in but without console or air hooked up. Did what we had to do during the week along with my regular job, got through the dinner (it went very well, the best and most organized ever), then had to travel to Ellsworth on Saturday the 20th to help my father move. Got back to the trailer about 5.00pm, hooked on and brought that home.


Sunday the 21st spent day getting camper emptied out and prepping for the wife's trip to Beals Island for two weeks....day gone in no time. Oh yes, almost forgot...the cut-off for removing studded snow tires was May 1st so figured those had better come off before she left town. Changed three...went to check the air pressure in the last summer tire and the TPMS POS pot metal valve stem snaps off....@$%@&*!!!!!.....on a Sunday in my town you have zero options when something like that happens...So I sent her with three summer tires and one studded winter tire on the right front...also wanted to change the oil....run to the local Wal Mart and they are out of Havoline 10W30.....wow....

May 22nd through May 29th..

As mentioned above wife going to Beals Island for two weeks, house sitting along with repainting the most of the downstairs and one bedroom upstairs. Also pet sitting two dogs and a three legged box turtle named Sarah who really likes slugs and snails from the garden....a slug for Sarah is equivalent to a shot of Crown Royal for me just to put it in perspective...

So she gets launched and whoops, I'm a temporary bachelor....so know I have to revive some old skills like doing dishes, laundry, water plants, etc....plus groceries, Credit Union trips, all that fun stuff.

The plan is for me to take the Can Am over on the 27th so that we can ride the Rail Trail on Sunday the 28th. That's great but some Meathead tore the Can Am all apart to make a free standing electrical system for all of the extra stuff. Tore it all apart the beginning of April but as you can see above I can't get time to put it all back together.

So spend every free minute when not doing the above chores plus bringing the flat tire to work and putting in a new TPMS assembly during the week trying to get the Can Am back in one piece. Needless to say that ran well into Saturday but I got most of it done, or enough so that I could go for a spin....

Also loaded up ramps, a jack, the newly repaired final summer tire, oil, filter, drain pan, tools so I could get the van straightened out...

I did make it to Beals Island Saturday about 6.00pm. Had a great ride Sunday and met many nice people as we stopped.

Monday (Memorial Day) I get out all the tools and while Sandy is hunting slugs and snails for Sarah I threw a quick oil change and tire change at the van right there in the driveway. Got that done and went out for a fantastic seafood dinner with the wife...seafood is really fresh there, many times just off of the boat...
Loaded back up and had to get to Bangor on the way home to do my payroll tally as it has to be submitted by 10.00 am on Tuesday so these Monday holidays make it a challenge. Way easier to do it the night before. Finally get home about 9.00 pm....

May 30th through June 4th....

Short week, much rain and lousy weather. Have to travel to other stores during the week. First of the month rolls up so that means two of us spend the next couple of days resetting re-order points in the computer system...much joy....

Saturday...groceries, laundry, get zero turn up to the house for service....got the service and greasing done, noticed it is not turning over as fast as it should so throw trickle charger on it overnight...while I had a minute decided it was time to check tire pressures in my stuff and see if any more TPMS sensors are going to be a problem...

Surprise!!! I never noticed that some half wit had put metal valve caps on the Yukon's wheels (Hint, don't do that if you live in an area where road treatment chemicals are used in the winter)....well guess what...I could not get the caps off as the white metal valve stem threads bonded with the valve caps...%$##@#^*&!!!
Spend over an hour heating the valve caps with a propane torch and applying PB Blaster, did not want to twist the whole stem and ruin the sensor... Got them all off by gently using heat and vice grips but threads on one are almost gone. Holding a plastic cap for now but will have to keep an eye on it.....

more laundry and supper, then call it a day...

Sunday...sun comes out and you can hear the grass growing. first time for the sun in about a week. So everything needs to me mowed, my other lot looks like a hayfield. Spend most of Sunday mowing and taking winter crap to storage in order to trade for summer crap...

Brakes on Hoopty had a shuddering fit during my return from the Westbrook store Friday night so decided yesterday I had better get a look at those where I didn't have time over the weekend to do it.....took an armload of calipers, rotors, shoes and brake hoses home with me last night. Started in on it at 7.30pm and finished up about 10.30pm. RH caliper froze which then caused the pads to freeze into the caliper brackets. Had to beat the pads out with a big hammer.....Left hand side was just like the day I installed them, free and clear. I have seen more brake issues than ever once the State started using this latest type of road deicer......you just never know what you are going to find anymore when you tear a vehicle apart..

So that my friends is why I have not been able to update this thread...my life should return to normal soon.....

Mike.
 
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Keep these coming Mike! I know not supposed to be but hilarious...!

Oh I had hoped some might find it funny, without humor all is lost.....You gotta' admit that a 3 legged box turtle that love slugs and snails is pretty comical...she makes a squeaking noise when you put the slugs in her dish....never seen anything quite like it before...

Sarah...


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Thanks for the updates Mike and life moves, love working too, never know who going to give me some odd job, Wednesday off to Bangkok too look at why are installation not operating or is the calibration not done correctly.
 
It continues.....the brake job that I did in the dark Monday came out so good I figured that Tuesday night would be a wonderful time to change Hoopty's left hand muffler which had developed a golf ball size hole in the seam over the last few weeks...a pleasing rumble turned into an annoying roar over that time period...had to special order one (of course) and it arrived at work Tuesday morning.

So some quality time with a sawzall and a fresh metal blade had the old one on the ground about 7.30 last night. A couple of clamps and one adapter later the new one was in place. Nice and quiet. Picked up garage and went in. Too dark for Motorhead's pictures. Still hadn't eaten so made a quick supper and crashed about 10.00pm....too late for seat install thread updates...

Today goes fairly well, get out of Bangor mid-afternoon and head to Westbrook for my weekly overnight stay...get everything done and settled in the room...figure "There Damn It, I can work on my seat thread!!!

I kid you not, I hadn't anymore than opened up the laptop and the Wi-Fi went out......it's still out and I am using my iPhone for a data hotspot...1/2 hour on the phone with the motel's tech support and they don't know what is wrong...lady across the hall having the same issue...what a crazy couple of weeks......
 
I'll keep an eye on my data, I don't have an unlimited plan so these pictures may suck up too much of it.
 
So upon review of this thread I see that the heat pad install was next up....

Starting with the seat back....

There are two plastic strips that interlock at the base of the seat back cover...Unlock the strips ....


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Then run your hand up in between the seat cover and the foam, then gently push the cover away from the foam working side to side from bottom to top. This will help release the parallel velcro strips that hold the cover to the foam so that you can roll the seat cover up to the headrest.


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Cover rolled up over headrest...that's far enough..


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Now take one of the heat pads and lay it out on the cushion. You can cut the pads a fair amount to allow for slots in seat foam, length of cushion, etc. but you CANNOT trim the width. So I went out on a limb on this install as the way it works out the edges will have to be folded into the velcro tracks in the cushion. This is only on the seat back, the seat cushion has no such issue as you will see later on..

First rough layout....pad is too long and will need to be trimmed in length.

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Phone dying, apparently being a wi-fi hotspot is very battery sucking....Who knew???:D

I'll dig a cord out of my briefcase and get this show back on the road.....
 
So now to trim the length...the kits come with extra sticky strips to seal the cut edges. And it is sticky, first time stuck is the last time stuck, no do-overs...

Trimmed heat pad...



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Sealing cut edge with sticky tape...


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Adhesive to hold pad to foam is under the brown backer stuff....



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Place heat pad in place to mark location of thermostat, you have to carve a rectangular divot out of the foam for that to set in......I used a utility knife to make the divot, gently....gently...



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Once everything is trimmed up you can stick the thing to the foam. I should also mention that the wire harness is placed at the bottom of the rear cushion so you don't stick the pad down before taking that into consideration....


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Peel off the brown backer and stick it, stick it good....notice that as I mentioned above the pad is a little wide but I rolled it down into the velcro track and I think that it will be ok....


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I had quite a bit of sticky tape left over so I applied it top and bottom from pad to foam. Figured it couldn't hurt....


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Work the cover back down over the cushion, taking your time from side to side as you work it over the side bolsters in the foam. Once you have it back in place lock the plastic strips back together and work the velcro back into the slots in the foam by pushing against the seams with your fingers.

When you finish it should look fairly normal, any little wrinkles and stuff will come out once you sit in them for a while.
 
Tomorrow night I'll show the rest of the pad install, gotta' give up for the night. I'm sucking more data uploading these pictures than a pimple faced teenager with an internet porn addiction.....
 
Mike, No hurry on me. I just got back yesterday from Santa Barbara where my wife had a surgical procedure. I with my two grown daughters that live in our same town are helping me get my better half back on her feet. She needs to be in shape, along with me to marry off our youngest (28) daughter off this September.
The "Name of the Game" Mike is....Expect the unexpected! NICE write up on the mods on your seats!
 
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